I’ve always been attracted to bookshops and rivers. Here is a picture of the Amazon at Sunset. This picture reminds me that I’m always glad to be near the end of my journey when sunset happens on the Amazon. Sunset over the Amazon is also a time when you don’t want to be stepping into the river. All kinds of wild life wakens up just after 5.30pm.

Now if the river can be dangerous so can bookshops, as those who attended this concert can testify. Talking about bookshops, years ago as a student I used to spend hours looking through the many second hand bookshops that were around in those days. I remember visiting my sister who lived in Inverness at the time and breaking the journey in Perth, just to see what I could find by way of books. I met a Free Church Minister that day, called Ian R Tulloch, who overheard me looking for an edition of Jonathan Edwards works. I certainly didn’t look like the typical Edwards reader, with my leather jacket and jeans, yet he invited me back for dinner to his home and gave me a very interesting edition of “Boston’s Fourfold State ” Here’s the actual book.

So its quite interesting to be talking about the place that books play in all our lives. John Ortberg wrote a best seller a few years back called “if you want to walk on water you gotta get out of the boat” well Iain and I wrote a song about water walking in the early 90s. Have a listen to the concert as it begins to develop a bit more. “Step into the water”, invites us all to take risks and make history for God.

While preparing and doing some research for the next Bogle Band Album, I came across a pile of tapes from the Bogle Band Tour of the States in 1998. We spent a week in Minneapolis touring round Universities and Colleges. We even managed to play in Kieran’s Irish Pub. However I discovered a recording of the day we played in the Edina Bookshop. I’ll put some posts up over the next few days highlighting the concert. I think it was a classic. If you listen to my accent over the course of the hour it changes as does my mood from being rather serious to being ridiculously flippant. We finally finish up as a band simply laughing at ourselves being in this strange situation playing songs in a bookshop. We started the set trying desperately hard to connect with our audience, the whole ten of them! Hence the reference to books in my study and this song, called Fools Wisdom,Fools Wisdom, which has a real bookshop appeal to it. The picture above is an authentic photograph taken that day at the bookshop. The picture below is a genuine picture of my study.

The advertising promoting the CWW National Gathering will hit the streets next Monday. The web page might not be up to date until Monday. We hope to post out over the weekend around 3000 envelopes promoting the work of CWW. The theme is ” All you can’t leave behind” Those of you who are keen U2 fans will
I ‘m sure think the title is familiar. In a sense it is and the other its not. You work out what is missing from this title. But please don’t send your comments on a post card. How about just posting something on the blog. You know I have a great feeling about this project. I just know we’re going to connect with thousands of people next May. The church is on the move from buildings to tents. From security to risk taking. Make sure everyone you know buys a ticket. If not I’m for the high jump.( I just think this in my weaker moments.) We need 10,000 people there over the two days to make the project balance. But hey, I believe its balanced already. Have a look at the programme. We’re looking for people to book up over the internet. and buy a tent. So if you’d like to be part of this great event next May sign up. Above all else will you pray forth event?

The above picture was on a billboard in Glasgow, in the merchant City. The dark glasses reminded me how we can hide our eyes from those who look at us, but we can’t hide our actions. they eventually catch up with us. So I guess my past is out again,yes believe it or not I’ve got the bug again. Its time to write a new album of songs.Iain jamieson who writes songs with me has come up with this idea that we should allow others to follow the progress of the album by making a pod cast every time we’ve been working on material. So here is the first podcast which I hope we’ll be able to upload to iTunes in the next couple of days for downloads onto your ipods.. Please get back to me and let me know what you think.

We had a very interesting day today. I managed to bring to a conclusion the study in the Book of Ephesians. It is such a wonderful book it reminds us about the kind of Gospel we preach and the kind of church God calls us to be. It was good to conclude the study by focusing our attention on the great power that prayer can bring into our lives.

It was great to see the reality of that prayer work out in the healing service this afternoon. Although numbers wee small the power of God’s touch reaching out to the people was great. This theme of prayer seems to be running straight through the day.

This evening I took some time off to support my nephew Jonathan who was professing his faith publicly at
Stirling Baptist Church. Here again was an example of God answering prayer. As a child Jonathan had professed his faith with his grandfather listening . Today he did it with hundreds looking on. The point here is that both my mother and father prayed regularly for all their grandchildren. Tonight another prayer of faith was answered.

Here is a picture of one of our local heros in Bo’ness Craig Hannah. When he’s not putting out fires he’s firing up young people to make music. I’ve known Craig since he was a teenager. In fact he played the drums in the first Bogle Band line up way back in ‘87. Well thanks to Craig the young rock musicians in Bo’ness have a rehearsal room. It opened on Friday evening 21st September.

Four bands all based in Bo’ness were headlining the night. Johnny Lapsley’s band “Fearless Dave” played an excellent set. One of the things I enjoyed about this band was their original material. Their ages belie their musical maturity. ” Fearless Dave” are well worth going to listen to. I can honestly say that I was disappointed when their set came to an end. Here’s picture of Johnny doing his stuff. I was also impressed with a young band called ” The Rising” this band have been around for a wee while now although I believe they have changed their original line up. They played a cover version of the one of the “Rolling Stones” songs and they made it their own. When it came to the next band, “Butch and the Bandits”, they put on a fantastic performance full of energy, I tell you it was so believable. Chris Allison the lead singer, tackled some serious songs and he sounded really convincing. He tackled songs from Bono to Freddie Mercury, well done, these guys were like bandits because they made these songs sound like their own.

Finally, Stephen’s band “We See Lights” came on the stage. This is a completely new band who where making their first public appearance. Of course three of them were formerly of the popular Bo’ness Band Soulstarr. This was a set up that showcased the boys ability to write and compose outstanding material. Their playing was technically superb but it was their ambient atmospheric sound that reminded me of Arcade Fire. Paul Dougall afterwards spoke to me about the band being a collective of musicians, and he was delighted that their first gig had gone so well. On a personal note, as father of one of the band members I have to declare an interest in” We See Lights”

However it was good to see so many father’s hanging around supporting their sons, whether they were mixing the music or playing in a band, or working the lighting rigg. All of them can rightly be proud of their boys. Can I say a special thanks to Richard Hannah of Richard Hannah Photography who took the pics

We started our new Alpha this week at the Inchyra Grange Hotel, near Polmont. We’re doing it as a joint venture this time with Polmont Old Parish Church. This must be at least the 30th or 40th course that I’ve led. I just love the idea of sitting down with people over a meal and sharing the essentials of the Christian faith. We don’t use videos, I just do the talk. I think it went really well last night. We shared the dialogue. Jerome and I have quite different styles and in fact I think we complimented each other.

I’m convinced that every minister of the gospel should be able to teach an Alpha course.. Its pretty simple. You hire a dinner table in a hotel for ten evenings. You invite 10 or 12 people to join you and you talk about the big questions of life. Its a winner! Most people love it. We tackle questions like, who is Jesus? Why did he die. How can we sure its true? Its amazing the ground you cover and the friendships that people make. I’ve now decided if I had my way I’d make it compulsory for all ministers to teach Alpha. If you reading this and your local why not join us next Thursday at the Inchyra.

Someone was telling me recently how they went to church in one of the cities here in Scotland. The whole experience rather than being uplifting was full of the cringe factor. It was “a too good to be true church”. You know the type. Before you get over the door, they’ve got your name and address and they’ve also supplied you with the nearest bible study group to your house.Finally, it was the “high fives” that eventually made the whole experience a bit of a farce. Maybe we need to look at how we do things in church. In our eagerness to make people welcome we can turn them off. I found this video clip on YouTube, I think it makes a good point. What do you think? Give me your thoughts.

I can’t get the documentary I saw last Thursday on BBC4 out of my mind. the blurb on the BBCs web page reads as follows;
“It was entitled BULGARIA’S ABANDONED CHILDREN. in the programme, Director Kate Blewett visits a children’s care home in Bulgaria and investigates the conditions in which the children live.

The Social Care Home – where 75 unwanted children are growing up – is the main employer in the small village of Mogilino. Few of the children can talk, not necessarily because they are unable but rather because no one has ever taught them how.

Kate meets the children in this tragic, silent world, such as Milan, the gentle giant who spends his days doing chores and watching over the others, and mildly autistic 18-year-old Didi, who is able to talk, and has plenty to say, but no one to speak to. The children that surround them suffer a variety of problems, many are blind or deaf and some are unable to leave their beds, many are literally wasting away.”

I found this whole documentary disturbing at a whole lot of levels. I didn’t want to watch it all because by watching it somehow I feel responsible. There is a part of me that says I’d rather not know. The other thing was, the pictures and images where so shamefully distressing that one wonders how any human being could set up their film crew and go round the home without literally getting involved. I was hearted to see that Kate Blewett and her production team had written to the Bulgarian Embassy to try and get some response. You can read the reply on the BBC web page. The other thing that gave me great confidence to believe that their is a great wave of compassion seeking to break over the UK was the number of comments left on the Beebs web page. So many people looking for direction where they might help. The other thing I found quite frustrating was the official stance of the BBC to the programme. they pointed out that the BBC in order to maintain its neutrality could not enter into any lobbying role. Got me thinking how can you take your camera’s to a place like Mogilino, make a film about injustice and then sit on the fence. Well I suppose the fact is that we all do our fair share of sitting on that fence. You’d think by now it would have collapsed.

Just had an update from Peru. I so glad to know that the aid we in Vine Trust send gets to the places of need, thanks to our partners in Union Biblica. Paul Clark writes, “These children are being fed – 2 good meals a day – at our ‘soup kitchens’. Just an hour ago I had a phone call from Marco, our schools’ worker in charge of the distribution of food. He asked permission to move one of the four feeding centres, because the bulldozers have come into the area to remove the rubble. The Government is, I believe, in spite of the news contrary to this, doing its best. There always has been corruption here, and so it is sad, but not surprising to see donated food and clothing being sold.”

Paul continues reminding us of the fact that life is cheap in so many parts of the developing world. He writes, “As I mentioned previously, thieves on the rampage constitute one of the major post-earthquake problems. Our Board chairman has a relative in Pisco. He was lying, totally trapped in the heavy debris of his home. Only his head was free. He saw a thief come by looting. He pleaded for help and told the man that if he freed him, he could have the money he had in his pocket. The thief removed the bricks, etc., helped himself to the money and left the victim motionless. His spine is broken in two places, is totally paralyzed and will, if he survives, be so for life.”

It is good to see 400 children being fed, every day thanks to the generosity of so many here in Scotland through the work of the Vine Tust. It is very sad to hear their stories, comforting to know that, although we can never fully understand, our God is challenging more and more of us to become hands on to do something about the need we see all around us. While people here in the UK continue to mourn the loss of one child think how devastating it must be to see a whole village of children disappear before your eyes.